We now know why horses snort - because they're happy

Horses appear to snort more when they’re happy. The finding could be used to assess the conditions in which horses are kept.

The distinctive noise has long been thought to serve hygienic functions, removing phlegm, flies and more from the nostril – although some studies had suggested that horses that are well looked-after seem to do it more.

Martine Hausberger at the University of Rennes, France, decided to investigate by recording the snorting patterns of 48 horses in Brittany, France, living under different conditions. Some …